Building construction



Feb. 20, 1951 MacMl LLAN CLEMENTS 2,542,859

' BUILDING CONSTRUCTION Filed June 6, 1945 3 Sheets-Sheet l Inventor:MacMillan Clements,

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Feb. 20, 1951 MacMlLLAN CLEMENTS 2,542,359

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION Filed June 6, 1945 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Invenbor'Macffli I Ian Clements,

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Feb. 20, 1951 mac c s 2,542,859

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed June 6, 1945 Inventor; Macillan Clements,

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Patented Feb. 20, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,542,859 BUILDINGCONSTRUCTION MacMillan Clements, Southport, Conn.

Application June 6, 1945, Serial No. 597,845

This invention relates to building construction and more particularly toimprovements in the fabrication of certain of the structural units whichmake up a building.

Practically all buildings have at least a roof, side walls and a floor.In addition, most of them have sills, plates or the equivalent which areinterposed between the building proper and its support or foundation andwhich serve to tie the structure together at the bottom.

In accordance with this invention these latter units are fabricated in anovel manner from flat sheets of laminated material. This material has aflexible relatively thin high tensile strength wearand weather-resistantskin bonded to a stiff relatively thick low tensile strength backingsheet. Examples of the skin are metal, such as sheet copper, stainlesssteel, zinc, magnesium, etc., or organic material, such as canvas.Examples of the backing material are plywood, fiber board or hardpressboard, etc.

An object of the invention is to provide new and improved buildingconstruction.

Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved methodof constructing a building.

A further object of the invention is to provide a novel type ofstructural unit for buildings.

The invention will be better understood from the following descriptiontaken in connection with the accompanying drawings and its scope will bepointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a building, suitable fora barracks, which is constructed in accordance with my invention, Fig. 2is a side elevation of the building shown in Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a cornerplan view, partly in section, on line 3--3 of Fig. 2, Fig. 4 is anenlarged side elevation of the corner whose plan view is shown in Fig.3, Fig. 5 is a view of one of the corner wall panels as it appearsoriginally and before it is folded into shape, Fig. 6 is a partly brokenaway perspective view of the same corner, and Fig. 7 is an enlarged endview of one of the sills.

Referring now to the drawings, the building shown in Fig. 1 may besupported in any suitable manner, such as by V-notched members I whichmay be bolted to posts or any suitable members 2, shown in Fig. 6, whichare set into the ground. A

plurality of these members I are arranged in parallel straight lines,three of which are indicated in Figs. 1 and 2, for receiving supportingbeams or sills 3 for the building. As shown most clearly in Fig. 6, thesills are hollow members which are illustrated as being triangular incross 2 Claims. (01. 20-1) section. These sills are constructed bycutting parallel grooves in the backing layer of laminated sheetmaterial of the type previously described, which grooves are parallel tothe edges of the sheet and then bending the sheet along these grooveswith the skin on the outside. The technique of working laminatedmaterial in this man ner to provide it with flanges forms the subjectmatter of my Patent 2,149,882, granted March 7, 1939, on an applicationfiled March 1, 1937.

As seen in Figure 7, V-notched members I receive sill 3 that supportsfloor panel 4. The V- notched member has a skin 50 backing member 59 andmeeting faces Hi, that result in the folding operation after the notcheshave been out.

The floor of the building is laid across the tops of the sills 3 andcomprises flanged panels with the flanges extending downwardly andjoined together so as to form rigid floor joists. Fig. 6 shows a portionof a floor panel 4 at one corner of the building. It will be seen thatthis panel has a depending flange 5 and that the flange is cut off shortso as to permit the extension of the main part of the panel to rest onthe flat top of the triangular sill 3. A side elevation of theconstruction showing the floor panel 4 with its flange 5 and itsopposite flange 5 which is in abutting relation to a flange 5" on thenext floor panel is shown in Fig. 4. The abutting flanges 5 and 5' arepreferably fastened together by a through bolt or rivet 6, although,obviously, equivalent means, such as an eyelette or screw, can also beused.

As will be seen more clearly in Fig. 3, the flanges 5' and 5" areshorter at both ends than the overall width of the panels 4 and 4' andit will be seen that the floor panels extend to approximately the centerof the middle sill 3.

The walls of the building are also constructed of multiple flangedpanels whose flanges are in abutting relation and are joined together.In Fig. 3 there is shown in cross section a corner wall panel 9 andportions of two ordinary wall panels l0 and I I, which latter two may besimilar in construction. As shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 6, the flanges ofthe wall panels are also fastened together by any suitable means, suchas through bolts [2.

A perspective view of one of the corner wall panels or posts 9 is shownin Fig. 5 in which the groove I3 is the one on which the panel 9 isformed to form the corner and the grooves l4 and I5 permit the panel tobe bent so as to form the end flanges. In addition, it will be notedthat there are bottom grooves and notches forming 3 7 bottom tabs 16 andH. The latter are also illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4. These bottom tabsmay be fastened to the sills 3 by suitable means which passes throughthe ends of the floor panels so as to clamp the latter in position, suchmeans being indicated by the studs l8 in Figs. 3 and 4.

The ordinary wall panels 3 are constructed in essentially the same wayas the corner panel except that they do not have the center groove asthey are not folded or bent in the middle.

The joined inwardl projecting flanges of the wall panels in effectconstitute wall studs which give very substantial strength and rigidityto the wall structure. panels of course corresponds to the siding orsurfacing of the building and, furthermore, the

backing layer of the sheets from which the panels are made constitute ineffect the sheathing of the building.

As all of the structural units of the building are made by bending intoshape pregroovedor notchedsheets or strips of laminated material,

the material entering into the building construction may be packed verycompactly and, for ex- The metal outer skinv of the ample, a one-storybuilding having a, x 20 Letters Patent of the United States is:

V 1. A hollow structural beam comprising a parallel sided sheet oflaminated material havinga skin bonded to a backer, said backer having arelatively lower tensile strength and greater thickness respectivelythan said skin, a pair of parallel grooves out through said backer tosaid skin, said grooves being parallel to said parallel sides, saidsheet being folded along said grooves to form a hollow closed sided beamwith said skin on the outside, the folded parts of said sheet '4 beingin contact with each other along their outer edges.

2. A support for a building including a plurality of posts set in theground in a straight line and having V-shaped notches in their upperends and a hollow triangular cross-section sill fitted into the Vnotches of said posts, said sill comprising a sheet of laminatedmaterial having a skin bonded to a hacker, said backer having arelatively lower tensile strength and greater thickness respectivelythan said skin, said backer being grooved down to said skin in twoparallel lines, said sheet being folded along said grooves to form saidtriangular cross-section sill with the skin on the outside.

MACMILLAN CLEMENTS.

REFERENCES CITED I The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 969,086 Burson 1 Aug. 30, 19101,473,842 Frederick Nov. 13, 1923 1,479,474 Meyercord Jan. 1, 19241,525,242 Jagschitz Feb. 3, 1925 1,609,541 Gooding Dec. '7, 19261,630,857 Meyercord May 31, 1927 1,669,667 Levine May 15, 1928 1,885,330Cherdron et al. Nov. 1, 1932 1,969,125 Fisher Aug. '7, 1934 2,023,814Lindsey Dec. 10, 1935 2,149,882 Clements Mar. '7, 1939 2,186,538Sl'ayter et all Jan. 9, 1940 2,227,452 Jullien Jan. '7, 1941 2,383,544Guimont -1- Aug. 28, 1945 2,396,829 Carpenter Mar. 19, 1946 2,401,588Smith 1- 1, June 4, 1946 2,405,584 Lewis Aug. 13, 1946 2,414,060 Rausch'Jan. '7, 1947 2,440,936 Elendorf et al. May 4, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTSNumber Country Date 624,855 Germany Jan. 29, 1936

